With the continuing coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic surely there should be a significant reduction in UK visa related fees. These fees were unaffordable even before coronavirus. It is even more unaffordable now. UK fees are amongst the highest in the World.

Companies and individuals are more likely than ever before to be put into financial difficulties due to excessive Government fees. Even after the current emergency situation ends it may be some time before things are back to normal.

Currently there are over 60,000 people in the UK who have coronavirus and there have been more than 7,000 deaths. This includes Boris Johnson the British Prime Minister who is still in hospital with coronavirus, but is apparently improving.

Please see an important announcement below.

Contact Home Office if your visa expires between 24 January 2020 and 31 May 2020

If you cannot leave the UK because of inability to travel or self-isolation related to coronavirus (COVID-19) you should complete the Home Office form to stay longer. This includes people whose visa has already expired.

Some people who would usually have to apply from overseas for a longer term visa such as Tier 2 General can now apply from within the UK. Please note that this only benefits people whose visa will expire by 31 May 2020. This will not apply to people who come under the one year cooling off period requirement. Further details in our recent news report.

The UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) department of the Home Office has published its processing fees for 2020/21, with all charges remaining unchanged from 2019. The latest UKVI fees apply to visa and immigration applications made on or after 6 April, 2020.

Up until 2018, the fees charged by the Home Office to process UK visa, citizenship and settlement applications had been gradually increasing above inflation. However, for the past two years, fees have mostly been frozen – yet the Immigration Health Surcharge, described as a separate tax on immigration, has increased sharply and is set to rise again in October.

By the end of 2018, non-EU immigrants paid a health surcharge of £200 per year. This means that a spouse applying for indefinite leave to remain (ILR) in the UK would have been subject to immigration fees totalling £1,033 for leave that was valid for two years, with an additional £500 for the health surcharge.

Immigration health surcharge increases

In January 2019, the health surcharge was doubled and in October willincrease to £624, with the rise included in March’s UK Budget. As a result, in just two years, even with UKVI fees frozen, the cost of a spouse ILR application will have increased by more than £1,000 from £1,533 to £2,593.

Despite UKVI fees remaining unchanged for 2020/21, a foreign national applying for UK ILR is subject to charges totalling £2,389. However, the cost for the Home Office to process an ILR application is just £243, which means that the agency is charging applicants 10 times the amount of the administrative cost.

Similarly, Tier 2 skilled worker visafees for applicants set to fill a job role on the UK’s shortage occupation list, are charged up to £928. However, Home Office administrative costs amount to just £127.

Fees for child citizenship

Immigrant advocates claim that the most appalling of all UK immigration fees is the amount charged to register a child as British. The fee for 2020/21 still exceeds £1,000. However, Home Office administrative costs are £372.

In 2019, the High Court ruled that the fee was unlawful and that the Home Office had failed to account for the best interests of children when implementing the charge. Despite this ruling, the fee remains the same.

UK employers subject to immigration fees

It’s not only foreign nationals faced with Home Office fees, UK employers are also subject to immigration charges. Theimmigration skills charge is a £1,000 mandatory fee that employers have to pay, per worker, if they want to hire migrants from outside the EU.

The fee is much smaller for small business owners and universities at £364, while in some cases, exemptions from the fee do apply. With thenew UK immigration system set to launch on 1 January, 2021, the immigration skills charge will then apply to the hiring of new workers from the EU. However, with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic there is increasing talk that Brexit will have to be delayed.

UK visa and immigration fees for 2020/21

We also have specific page covering UK visa fees under the Sponsor Licence and Tier 2 visa scheme. UK visa and immigration fees for 2020/21 are as follows:

Tier 2 (General), (Intra-Company Transfer) - Long Term Staff, (Sportsperson) & (Minister of Religion), where a certificate of sponsorship has been issued for a period of three years or less - Footnote 2

Nationality - supply of a certified copy of a notice, certificate, order or declaration

£250

£250

£0

Administrative review

£80

£80

£0

7. Points based system - applications made in the UK

Fees category

Current Fee

New fee from 6 April 2020

Fee Change

Tier 1 (General) - dependant

£1,878

£1,878

£0

Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) - Footnote 2 below

£1,277

£1,277

£0

Tier 1 (Investor)

£1,623

£1,623

£0

Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur) - dependants only

£493

£493

£0

Tier 1 (Exceptional Talent) - dependants only

£608

£608

£0

Tier 2 (General), (Intra-Company Transfer) - Long Term Staff, (Sportsperson) & (Minister of Religion), where a certificate of sponsorship has been issued for a period of three years or less - Footnote 2 below

£704

£704

£0

Tier 2 (Intra-Company Transfer) - Graduate Trainee - Footnote 2 below

£482

£482

£0

Tier 2 (General), (Intra-Company Transfer) - Long Term Staff, where a certificate of sponsorship has been issued for a period of more than three years - Footnote 2 below

£1,408

£1,408

£0

Tier 2 (General) shortage occupation where a certificate of sponsorship has been issued for a period of three years or less - Footnote 2 below

£464

£464

£0

Tier 2 (General) shortage occupation where a certificate of sponsorship

has been issued for a period of more than three years - Footnote 2 below

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